


After You Leave

by phrenitis



Category: Stargate Atlantis RPF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-24
Updated: 2007-08-24
Packaged: 2017-10-14 22:12:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/154026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phrenitis/pseuds/phrenitis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five Times Torri and Joe Made Out</p>
            </blockquote>





	After You Leave

It’s hotter than hell and he wishes he’d had the foresight to get a table outside.

What started out as a quick, celebratory drink ends up an impromptu party, and he can’t even look around the bar without recognizing an Atlantis crew or cast member anymore.

Torri shifts beside him, and somehow that settles her closer. They are wedged seven deep in the booth, eight if you count Rachel occasionally stopping by and sitting on Jason’s lap, and eventually Joe knows he’s going to have to figure out how to make his way free so he can pee.

A refill of drinks appears on the table; beers, whiskey, and some frighteningly sweet, pink/orange cocktail that is undoubtedly David’s. They toast (again) to the show’s success (again), and he’s almost glad when Rachel steals his drink away; he’s pretty much three sheets to the wind already.

Torri’s easily matched, and probably exceeded, the amount of alcohol he’s consumed because she’s suddenly gone quiet. Her elbow is propped up on the table, head in hand, and she’s studying him with a faint smirk. He isn’t sure what she’s thinking until she slides her drink the short distance to him.

It’s more whiskey than coke and it catches him by surprise, the alcohol momentarily burning the back of his throat. He downs what’s left in the glass and turns to her with a smug smile.

It takes one long second (filled with the smell and feel of her) before he realizes that she’s kissing him. It’s nothing like the on-set kiss, or even the ones in rehearsal where they had flirted liberally because this time he feels the flick of her tongue against his, tantalizing and dangerous. _Fuck_ , he thinks, and then he doesn’t care.

When they part, it can’t be more than a handful of seconds later because Rachel’s laughing, David’s saying something about scene stealing, and conversation is too animated to be anything but a silly, drunken moment.

 _Fuck_ , he thinks again; then, _shit_.

==

He drives her home on a night when it’s rainy and late, and they’re somewhere between riding the high from the shoot that finally ended and needing to be asleep for the early shoot in the morning.

Torri’s rambling about the new salad that catering brought by, caught between yawns and an exhausted laugh that makes him smile. From time to time he glances at her, watches as she ties her hair up in a ponytail or leans her head back to look out the window. There is something about her that is eternally youthful.

The trip to her place is short and he parks at the curb as he tries to convince her to just take his damn umbrella already. The rain is torrential and once she’s sick, she always manages to pass it to him somehow, but she ignores his protests as he half-expected she would.

She doesn’t even make it a step toward the door before she comes around the side of the car with her arms wrapped around herself and an expression he’s had burned into his mind for a month. He rolls down the window and tells her he’ll never forgive her if she gives him pneumonia.

And then he doesn’t even bother with pretense, just hooks a finger into her shirt and pulls her down until he’s kissing her. It’s not the most comfortable position for him, and he can’t imagine leaning into a car while half stuck in the rain is appealing to her, so the kiss is all the more short and devastating.

She reaches past him, and for some reason she takes the umbrella this time, useless as it is now that she’s soaked through.

He says her name before she goes too far, but doesn’t apologize because he’s not feeling all that sorry. She turns to look at him for a moment, cold and wet and smiling, and then she walks away.

When he gets home, he circles the block three times before he parks.

==

They are almost late to the convention panel (practically screaming their flustered arrival together), and he’s more than surprised when no one notices. Only Jason looks at him like he’s a goddamn idiot.

And maybe he is, because he was always more of a rules person before.

==

In rehearsal he means it; means it because he can get away with it and only Torri knows the difference.

It’s not scripted, but it’s Friday, and no one’s too concerned about a little extra film when they’re ahead of schedule for once. Even Andy keeps the mood light with laughter and pranks, practically eats away at ten minutes when he blocks a kiss ‘for the deleted scenes’.

There’s nothing intimate in the setting, and it is torture really, being limited to kissing, but Torri finds subtle ways to keep it creative.

Filming stops as adjustments are made, and they make the unspoken decision to stay on their marks. As usual, he is no more than a foot from her side, so he pulls her closer and tries to keep it innocent.

She leans into him and they watch David as he sorely loses some sort of “push each other off the mark” game due to Jason’s sheer size. She is flushed and happy and then her hand in his pocket suddenly withdraws.

He looks at her, but she’s smiling at something, stepping away from him quickly. And then he sees Katherine standing off to one side of his chair.

It’s one of those horror moments when he’s stuck feeling everything and unable to do anything about it, and he watches while Torri walks over. She says something and then Kath laughs and amazingly they’re in conversation.

Their voices move him to action and he walks toward them. To the side, David and Jason have fallen silent and are watching like they aren’t sure how they should react.

He ignores it, his heart pounding, and can’t help but look at Torri when Kath kisses him hello.

==

Outside, she stands at the porch railing and pours her beer down into the grass. It’s soundless, the noise from the party absorbing everything else, and he walks to her undetected.

It’s taken him awhile to find her. It’s a party in her honor after all, and the last place he expected to find her was in the dark on the upstairs porch.

She doesn’t start when he stands beside her, somehow knowing it’s him, and sets the empty bottle on the railing beside two others. He doesn’t know what to say, doesn’t want to bring up the party or talk about why they’re here.

Torri leans in to him, wraps arms around his waist and tips back to look up at him. “You’ll have to say goodbye eventually.”

He’s meant goodbye over and over again the last few months, and somehow it’s never quite the last. He doesn’t know what it is about her, but she is captivating, exhilarating, and it’s been worth the burning in eternity he’s going to face later.

He kisses her lightly, but she stops him before he can do it again.

“Joe.” She tries to find words but can’t, and bows her head down against his chest. He stares out at Vancouver quietly for a moment, the city a jumble of lights in the distance.

Torri lifts her head. “You should go.”

He nods. “I know.”

She smiles though he knows it’s harder for her than she lets on; she is Elizabeth incarnate. Her lips come up to meet his, gentle and soft, all sorts of goodbyes in the press of her body. But then a second becomes two, and that’s all it takes for the kiss to deepen, her mouth opening against his.

It stops being goodbye right about then because she snakes a leg around his, and he has a hand under her shirt. Her back is warm and smooth and he runs a thumb down the side of her spine.

And then she is smiling, kissing him though she’s laughing and trying to say things like “damn it, Joe” and what sounds like “hate you”.

She steps back, her cheeks and eyes bright. “You’re going to make me miss my flight.”

He shrugs innocently, still slightly breathless.

Torri fixes her shirt and comes over to straighten his collar. “I’ll take a cab when I get back.”

He shakes his head. “I can pick you up. It’ll be Katherine’s weekend with the boys.”

Her eyes soften; neither of them has adjusted to it fully yet. She nods.

“Okay then,” he says and takes a breath. “Goodbye, Torri.”

There is a pause, and then she grins. “For now.”

 _-Fin_


End file.
